I love the smell of data in the morning!
Interesting and surprising statistics about digital media and devices. Compiled & curated by Dan Calladine, Aegis Media - dan.calladine@aemedia.com -
All views expressed are my own. Please email me if you have any queries, amendments or suggestions. Follow me on twitter - I'm @dancall

Wednesday, 26 October 2016

"For the first time in 15 years Apple's revenues have declined, the latest earnings figures from the Silicon Valley giant show.
Financial details from Tim Cook's company show at the end of the 2016 fiscal year it earned $217 billion (£178bn).
While the year on year $217bn figure is more than most companies would dream of, it represented a nine percent drop from $233.7bn (£191bn) at the end of 2015.
The cause of the $16bn decline? A continued drop in iPhone sales. During the previous three months Apple sold 45.5 million iPhones, which was a decrease of 5 percent on the 48m handsets it sold during the same period last year.
Its overall revenue for the fourth quarter was $46.9bn (£38bn) and Apple also posted a quarterly net income of $9bn (£7.3bn).
Despite the slightly gloomy figures Apple has little to worry about going forward. The most recent quarter doesn't take into account most of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus reviews, which were released towards the end of the period. "“We’re thrilled with the customer response to iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2, as well as the incredible momentum of our Services business, where revenue grew 24 percent to set another all-time record,” Tim Cook said in a statement."

"Alibaba is shaping and guiding Chinese consumer behavior and trends. We are also helping consumers enjoy greater convenience and a wider range of options in the ongoing consumption upgrade. We are popular among millennials, who view us as an inseparable part of their lives. More than 75% of our users are 35 years old or younger.
During fiscal year 2016, our China retail marketplaces reached a historical milestone when annual gross merchandise value transaction surpassed RMB 3 trillion, making Alibaba Group the largest retail ecosystem in the world. Our annual active buyers continued to grow, reaching 423 million as of March 31, 2016. Our extraordinary year-over-year growth in mobile transactions, which reached 73% for the quarter ended March 31, 2016, showcased the success of our transformation into mobile-first. Through the acquisition of Youku Tudou and brisk growth in Alitrip and Koubei, we have expanded our offerings beyond physical goods to include digital content and local services, which we believe will be the next wave of growth."
Source: Letter to shareholders from Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang. 13th October 2016

"Over the last two years, the Alibaba team has produced outstanding results. In fiscal year 2016, we continued to build out the world’s largest retail ecosystem. Gross merchandise volume transacted on our China retail platforms surpassed an unprecedented RMB 3 trillion. In the fiscal year prior to our IPO, mobile revenue accounted for a single-digit percentage of total revenue from our China retail marketplaces; in our most recent quarter, mobile contributed more than 75% of total revenue. Our mobile monetization rate now exceeds that of the desktop, making Alibaba Group the largest mobile commerce company in the world. We have more than 430 million annual active buyers, which means one out of every three individuals in China has made a purchase on our retail marketplaces. Additionally, our cloud computing business, digital media and entertainment businesses, and the strategic bets we have made on innovative, emerging technologies are demonstrating strong growth that we believe will be sustainable for years to come."

Thursday, 13 October 2016

"Instagram Stories is benefitting from the large active user base Instagram itself enjoys, and now has 100 million daily active viewers. That’s two-thirds of the daily active user population for Snapchat, which reported 150 million global active users across its entire platform in late September. Even with a built-in audience to build from, and prime real estate positioning at the very top of Instagram’s user interface, the rapid pace of its adoption is impressive.
The new stat comes from a Buzzfeed report that also reiterated the total of monthly active users across Instagram at a high of 500 million (a number it first released in June), halfway to that coveted 1 billion mark Facebook Messenger passed earlier this year."

Wednesday, 12 October 2016

"Driven by mobile, digital advertising continues to prove its worth to advertisers who increased spend 16.4%¹ in the first half of 2016 to £4.78 billion – the highest first half growth rate for two years.
· Overall 16.4% rise in digital spend is highest first half growth rate for two years
· Mobile spend up 56.1%
· Video the fastest growing ad format, up 67%
The PwC / Internet Advertising Bureau UK Digital Adspend report also shows the amount spent on mobile display ads (£802 million) overtook that of PC and tablet display (£762 million) for the first time. This significant development reflects the rapid growth of time spent on smartphones.
Total mobile ad spend, including search and classifieds, increased by 56.1% in the first half of 2016. Consequently, 36p in every £1 spent on digital advertising now goes to mobile, up from 4p just five years ago.
“Mobile use today is more akin to a computer than merely a phone, as people increasingly rely on them as their information, entertainment and communications hub,” said the IAB UK’s Chief Strategy Officer, Tim Elkington. “People now spend more time online on their mobile than they do on a computer. Consequently, marketers devote more ad spend to mobile as they increasingly cotton on to the fact that people essentially carry an ad platform with them wherever they are.”
Accompanying online YouGov consumer data shows that 82% of smartphone owners check their phone within an hour of waking up, while 86% of 18-34s do so within half an hour. For 1 in 5 of those looking at their phone soon after waking up, checking social media is the first thing they do, rising to 29% of 18-34s. The smartphone is now the primary source of news for 30% of owners, rising to 42% among 25-34s².
Video, social and native are fastest-growing formats
Spend on video ads overall grew 67% to hit £474 million during the front half of 2016. Driven by rising video, TV and film viewing on smartphones, mobile video spend alone grew 129%. Consequently, video accounts for 30% of all display advertising but 37% of mobile display.
Outstream and in-read video ads (those appearing anywhere on the page, not before video content) saw a massive 440% rise and now account for 40% of video spend, whilst ‘traditional’ video ads (which play before, during or after an online video) grew 17%.
Ad spend on social media sites grew 43% to £745 million, meaning nearly half (48%) of display spend now goes on social. Social media spend on mobile alone grew 64%, so mobile now accounts for 80% of spend allocated to social.
Content and native advertising spend – which includes ‘advertorials’ and ads in social media news feeds – increased 29% to £451 million.
Consumer goods are biggest display advertisers
Consumer goods brands – such as food, toiletries and clothing – spent the most on display ads (e.g. banners and video), responsible for 18.3% of spend, followed by travel & transport (16.4%) and automotive (11.7%).
Driven by mobile, which grew 61%, paid-for search overall grew 18.1% to £2.49bn – a 52% share of digital ad spend. Classifieds, including recruitment, property and automotive listings, grew 3.6% to £699 million (15% share).
“The phenomenal rise of mobile search reinforces the idea of mobile as the ever-present ad medium,” says Dan Bunyan, Senior Manager at PwC. “It means advertisers no longer have to wait to target people at specific ‘touchpoints’ during the day. Instead they can deliver highly relevant, localised ads with unprecedented immediacy, such as reacting to people reaching a specific place, looking for a particular product or even the weather changing.”"

Monday, 3 October 2016

"Facebook announced Tuesday that more than 4 million businesses worldwide are active advertisers on the social network, with more than 70 percent of them based outside of the U.S.
More than 60 million businesses globally are using Facebook pages."
Source; AdWeek, 27th September 2016
Earlier - 3m declared in March 2016